shoeshineman
WKR
Hi all!
I've learned so much that I thought I'd share my experiences in return for all of your valuable insight over the past few years. Definitely helped with my learning curve these last few seasons!
Getting there: I have a subaru outback and with all the stuff strapped on, I felt like Jed Clampett driving around. I'm really thinking of a full size pickup sometime in the future.
I was in a national forest OTC unit in Colorado from Sept 13th thru 21st. There was quite a bit of other hunters all camped off the forest road and I would say a significant number were hunting out of four wheelers and side-by-sides. It seemed that many of these people were simply driving back and forth on the forest road. This surprised me a bit as I spend so much time on Rokslide and generally assume that everyone is hiking in to their spots.
Google Earth will straight up lie to your face! The area looked completely different from the satellite photos on GE. The combination of topography, foliage, and ground features totally changed how my access points/trails were used in practice. I was surprised by the results of my e-scouting, in terms of where I expected to find elk sign and where we actually found it. One spot that I was sure was going to be covered in a herd of elk was completely desolate of any and all sign. Another spot that I was sure wasn't worth going into turned out to be the hot spot.
The whole meme about everyone going "5 miles in" is totally true. Mid week, we packed in 4 miles thru some brutal country to get to the "honey hole" and there were almost as many people packed into this area as there were in our general truck camp area! We were very diligent to setup our spike camp in terms of wind and sound discipline to not upset the honey hole. The next morning we found 7 tents setup smack in the middle of the honey hole. I still don't know what they were thinking.
A camp mate took a bull and myself and another packed the quarters out. Packing out quarters at elevation thru thick brush is no joke. I'm a US cycling cat 3 bicycle road racer and I was sucking wind, and glutes on fire, packing this thing out. I will change my training for this fo' sure going forward.
EQUIPMENT:
Pack: I was deciding between the xcurve and Kifaru. After trying the xcurve, I went to Kifaru on my lunch break (I live in Denver area) and Kayle (spelling?) helped me try out some things and get me fitted. Anders was super helpful for all of my post sale customer service questions. I bought the new Kifaru frame, a guide lid, and a grab it. This combo was perfect for day hunting and the pack out of the quarters. I can't imagine that pack out with my alice frame. I used my basic training issued duffel bag for my spike camp, it worked well enough but I could see a Reckoning or similar in the future. I would buy it all in 1 second if I had to. End of discussion there.
Boots: Lowa tibet gtx. I'm a super stiff boot kind of guy and these were awesome in all conditions. Especially trudging through some watery/muddy bogs. I will definitely have gaiters for the wet stuff going forward. Learned a hard lesson there. Crocs for at camp are the way to go.
Glass: Leica geovid hd b 10x42. These are a major step up from my 80's era Zeiss in terms of everything. Amazing. They were a bit much in terms of magnification for how thick the foliage was in our particular area. For day to day archery hunting, I think a mid range 8x30 is the way to go for the area I was in.
Trekking poles: Costco carbon specials. Game changer. I will always have poles on hunts with me (at least available back at camp). These things are beasts and comfy.
Clothing: Various merino wool cobbled together from sales and fleabay. Temp regulation and lack of body funk make merino my first choice going forward. I definitely ripped my pants a couple times on brush, but its still worth it to me. In past years my synthetic stuff stank so bad it almost made me cry. I'm not convinced that camo patterns are so important for elk, compared to earth-tone solid colors. Merino neck gaiter was awesome.
Navigation: I had paper maps and a garmin 401. I will definitely have a phone based app next time. I'm thinking the gaia app. I was surprised how fast my garmin 401 killed batteries, but maybe that's due to having WAAS turned on all the time?
Bow: I thought I was smart to have a 16" stabilizer, because my long range groups are so much better, but that thing was such a pain getting constantly hung up on brush that I'm doing something different next year.
Shelter: I brought a mountainsmith lt tarp. This is a one man shelter. I will not invite my buddy to share next time. It was too crowded for me. This thing was not fun after a rain due to the amount of condensation dripping down all night (this is a single wall issue not a mountainsmith lt issue specifically), but I do love the floorless design regardless. I understand the niche for a double wall in wet weather due to the condensation issues of single wall shelters.
Sleeping rig: UGQ goose down quilt. For my personal preference, this thing is killer. Big agnes q-core slx wide pad. For both quilt and pad, the wider the better for me (I'm 5'7" 165lb).
I think its important to be cognizant of how much your gear weighs, but utility, comfort, quality, and reliability win the day. Doing intense cardio training all year is WAY more important than gram counting, in my opinion.
Social media: The amount of pics of people with archery elk is really deceptive. Talking to other hunters in person has really reinforced to me how common it is to go home empty handed.
The real question is how do I do more boots on ground pre-season scouting with two small children at home? I'm not sure about that part!
I hope this is all helpful. I really appreciate all of your reviews and commentary over the past few years. If anyone wants to get a beer and talk elk sh*t in the Denver area sometime, send me a PM!
I've learned so much that I thought I'd share my experiences in return for all of your valuable insight over the past few years. Definitely helped with my learning curve these last few seasons!
Getting there: I have a subaru outback and with all the stuff strapped on, I felt like Jed Clampett driving around. I'm really thinking of a full size pickup sometime in the future.
I was in a national forest OTC unit in Colorado from Sept 13th thru 21st. There was quite a bit of other hunters all camped off the forest road and I would say a significant number were hunting out of four wheelers and side-by-sides. It seemed that many of these people were simply driving back and forth on the forest road. This surprised me a bit as I spend so much time on Rokslide and generally assume that everyone is hiking in to their spots.
Google Earth will straight up lie to your face! The area looked completely different from the satellite photos on GE. The combination of topography, foliage, and ground features totally changed how my access points/trails were used in practice. I was surprised by the results of my e-scouting, in terms of where I expected to find elk sign and where we actually found it. One spot that I was sure was going to be covered in a herd of elk was completely desolate of any and all sign. Another spot that I was sure wasn't worth going into turned out to be the hot spot.
The whole meme about everyone going "5 miles in" is totally true. Mid week, we packed in 4 miles thru some brutal country to get to the "honey hole" and there were almost as many people packed into this area as there were in our general truck camp area! We were very diligent to setup our spike camp in terms of wind and sound discipline to not upset the honey hole. The next morning we found 7 tents setup smack in the middle of the honey hole. I still don't know what they were thinking.
A camp mate took a bull and myself and another packed the quarters out. Packing out quarters at elevation thru thick brush is no joke. I'm a US cycling cat 3 bicycle road racer and I was sucking wind, and glutes on fire, packing this thing out. I will change my training for this fo' sure going forward.
EQUIPMENT:
Pack: I was deciding between the xcurve and Kifaru. After trying the xcurve, I went to Kifaru on my lunch break (I live in Denver area) and Kayle (spelling?) helped me try out some things and get me fitted. Anders was super helpful for all of my post sale customer service questions. I bought the new Kifaru frame, a guide lid, and a grab it. This combo was perfect for day hunting and the pack out of the quarters. I can't imagine that pack out with my alice frame. I used my basic training issued duffel bag for my spike camp, it worked well enough but I could see a Reckoning or similar in the future. I would buy it all in 1 second if I had to. End of discussion there.
Boots: Lowa tibet gtx. I'm a super stiff boot kind of guy and these were awesome in all conditions. Especially trudging through some watery/muddy bogs. I will definitely have gaiters for the wet stuff going forward. Learned a hard lesson there. Crocs for at camp are the way to go.
Glass: Leica geovid hd b 10x42. These are a major step up from my 80's era Zeiss in terms of everything. Amazing. They were a bit much in terms of magnification for how thick the foliage was in our particular area. For day to day archery hunting, I think a mid range 8x30 is the way to go for the area I was in.
Trekking poles: Costco carbon specials. Game changer. I will always have poles on hunts with me (at least available back at camp). These things are beasts and comfy.
Clothing: Various merino wool cobbled together from sales and fleabay. Temp regulation and lack of body funk make merino my first choice going forward. I definitely ripped my pants a couple times on brush, but its still worth it to me. In past years my synthetic stuff stank so bad it almost made me cry. I'm not convinced that camo patterns are so important for elk, compared to earth-tone solid colors. Merino neck gaiter was awesome.
Navigation: I had paper maps and a garmin 401. I will definitely have a phone based app next time. I'm thinking the gaia app. I was surprised how fast my garmin 401 killed batteries, but maybe that's due to having WAAS turned on all the time?
Bow: I thought I was smart to have a 16" stabilizer, because my long range groups are so much better, but that thing was such a pain getting constantly hung up on brush that I'm doing something different next year.
Shelter: I brought a mountainsmith lt tarp. This is a one man shelter. I will not invite my buddy to share next time. It was too crowded for me. This thing was not fun after a rain due to the amount of condensation dripping down all night (this is a single wall issue not a mountainsmith lt issue specifically), but I do love the floorless design regardless. I understand the niche for a double wall in wet weather due to the condensation issues of single wall shelters.
Sleeping rig: UGQ goose down quilt. For my personal preference, this thing is killer. Big agnes q-core slx wide pad. For both quilt and pad, the wider the better for me (I'm 5'7" 165lb).
I think its important to be cognizant of how much your gear weighs, but utility, comfort, quality, and reliability win the day. Doing intense cardio training all year is WAY more important than gram counting, in my opinion.
Social media: The amount of pics of people with archery elk is really deceptive. Talking to other hunters in person has really reinforced to me how common it is to go home empty handed.
The real question is how do I do more boots on ground pre-season scouting with two small children at home? I'm not sure about that part!
I hope this is all helpful. I really appreciate all of your reviews and commentary over the past few years. If anyone wants to get a beer and talk elk sh*t in the Denver area sometime, send me a PM!
